Collaborative Research: Assembling the Euteleost Tree of Life - Addressing the Major Unresolved Problem in Vertebrate Phylogeny

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This project will involve investigators from eight institutions working to resolve evolutionary relationships within the euteleost fishes, which represent over one third of vertebrate diversity. An important component will be education of the public on the importance, evolutionary history, and diversity of these animals. Phylogenetic analyses will employ DNA sequence data from 20 genes in 1,500 species representing all euteleost families, and approximately 450 morphological characters from 300 euteleost lineages. Resulting phylogenetic hypotheses will be used to facilitate understanding of the evolution of fish diversity and re-assess and revise the systematics of euteleosts. Research on the euteleost tree of life will be integrated into science education by using euteleost phylogeny as a framework for exploring the evolution of morphological, genetic, developmental, and behavioral diversity of fishes. This will be developed as an instructional guide, a "Fish ToL Activity Book," directed at upper elementary and middle school children and disseminated in non-formal and school settings working in partnership with the National Science Teachers Association Press and the National 4-H Afterschool Council. Undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs will participate directly in the research project. The euteleosts include some 346 families, 2,935 genera and 17,419 species. Over two thirds of all fishes and nearly a third of all vertebrates are euteleosts, which include most of the economically important fishes such as salmons, basses, cods and tunas. This study will facilitate informed predictions about the poorly known characteristics of most euteleosts and will considerably improve the evolutionary context for understanding model organisms such as zebrafish, pufferfish, cichlids, medaka, and stickleback, which are central to the burgeoning fields of functional genomics, genetics and evolutionary developmental biology.